§ Ms Rosie WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what steps he is taking to promote common standards across the public and private sectors of building control. [53361]
§ Mr. RaynsfordIn March I welcomed the establishment by the Construction Industry Council, the Local Government Association and the Association of 123W Corporate Approved Inspectors of a Steering Group to draw up recommended standards and monitoring arrangements for building control.
The Steering Group has had two preliminary meetings, and has adopted the following terms of reference which I am happy to endorse:
To help achieve compliance with the regulations of the work supervised, the Steering Group shall:
- 1.draw up proposals for a common Building Control Performance Standard for compliance with the requirements of the Building Regulations;
- 2.draw up proposals for monitoring the compliance of both local authorities and approved inspectors with the Building Control Performance Standard;
- 3.draw up proposals and a time scale for implementing (1) and (2);
- 4.consider other relevant issues; and
- 5.submit proposals to the DETR for approval".
The Steering Group has set itself the target of submitting a report to me by the end of the year.